Purdue University Libraries

Books, Bytes, and Boilermakers
at Purdue University: A History of
the Purdue University Libraries

The story of the Purdue University Library system combines revered academic traditions with the occasional surprise that brought books and people together in unusual ways. The appointment earlier this year of Martin C. Jischke as Purdue’s president is an embodiment of the University’s traditions. Our new chief executive came to Purdue from another Midwestern land-grant institution with strong service commitments and international visibility. Like its counterparts among land-grant institutions, Purdue developed library collections rich in agriculture and related specialties, technology and engineering, and basic and applied sciences, focusing on current research and employing the latest tools for digital access.

Richard Owen established the Library by selling 800 scientific works to the University when he resigned as Purdue president on March 10, 1874. The youngest son of Robert Dale Owen (leader of the utopian community New Harmony), Richard Owen had been an accomplished soldier and physician as well as professor of geology at Indiana University. Although president for nearly two years, the library-founder never moved from Bloomington to Lafayette. Local attorney Godlove S. Orth, another important early contributor to Library collections, defeated John Purdue en route to four consecutive terms in the United States Congress.

The University appointed Eulora J. Miller as its first full-time librarian in 1878; she was also Purdue’s first female graduate. One of Miller’s successors was Elizabeth Day “Ducky” Swan, sister-in-law of Purdue president James H. Smart. Swan served as librarian from 1889 until her death in 1903. The collection had grown to about 11,000 volumes housed in two rooms of University Hall. On occasion, Swan converted the Library into a much-needed ballroom.

The Library achieved remarkable administrative stability through four directors who served collectively for nearly 100 years. Each director left a unique stamp on the institution and the library profession.

William M. Hepburn (1904-44) led the system through construction of the General Library in 1913, a major stack addition in 1934, and the creation in the 1920s of departmental libraries for agriculture, biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, mathematics, pharmacy, and physics. Hepburn also co-authored a history of Purdue and served as bibliographer and curator for the Goss Library of the History of Engineering.

John Helenbeck “Jack” Moriarty (1944-69) further decentralized the Library system into 28 school and departmental libraries. The total collection grew from 180,000 volumes when Moriarty arrived to one million when he retired. Purdue’s Audio Visual Center was established in 1950 under Moriarty’s direction. Fifty years ago, it seemed quite innovative that films and tape recordings could be as essential to student learning as books and periodicals. Moriarty also was an innovator beyond Purdue as a founding father of the Center for Research Libraries, a massive centralized collection of lesser-used and rare materials built for sharing among scholars at research universities.

Joseph M. Dagnese (1972-89) consolidated the system into 14 libraries and oversaw the construction of the Undergraduate Library and the compact shelving facility with a capacity of 1.3 million volumes. Dagnese expanded automation projects, emphasized resource sharing, and presided over the United States Book Exchange and the Special Libraries Association.

Current director Emily R. Mobley became Purdue’s first Dean of Libraries in 1989. She has led the system in strategic planning and to a collection size of 2.3 million. Mobley also has attracted new University-level support for remodeling projects and Web-based resources. She has earned national recognition as president of the Special Libraries Association, as advisor to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, and as an advocate for more equitable serials pricing.

Other library staff and students made important contributions to the University and the profession. Bruce Rogers (class of 1890) is world-renowned as a book and type designer. Esther Ellis Norton (class of 1927) served in governmental libraries and became an important benefactor of the Purdue Library. Ann Kerker and Theodora Andrews (class of 1953) were prolific authors in the literatures of their specialty. Kerker founded the Veterinary Medical Library and the Veterinary Medical Section of the Medical Library Association. Andrews directed the Pharmacy, Nursing, and Health Sciences Library. Eugene B. Jackson (class of 1937) served as chief information officer for NASA, General Motors, and IBM. Richard M. Dougherty (class of 1959) directed research libraries at the University of California and the University of Michigan. Oliver C. Dunn, Miriam Drake, an others issued a series of reports using mathematical models to predict research library collection growth. Ten members of the Library faculty served as overseas consultants (in Brazil, Hungary, India, Israel, Portugal, and the Niger Republic).

The Library established partnerships and thus built specialized collections in collaboration with Purdue professors. William Freeman Myrick Goss left his personal library to Purdue years after his resignation as Dean of Engineering at Purdue and departure for the University of Illinois. The Goss Library, part of the Siegesmund Engineering Library, now numbers about 7,000 volumes in the history of engineering and transportation technology. Donors also made possible the acquisition of a rare books library, since transformed into the Krannert Special Collection of Business and Economic History: 8,000 books, pamphlets, and tracts dating from 1500 to 1870. The Amelia Earhart Collection, the largest of its kind, features photographs, maps, and artifacts pertaining to the famous Purdue aviator.

While the Library has long responded to the specialized needs of research faculty, it has done so in combination with a strong service imperative devoted to the needs of thousands of students. By the 1990s, the commitment to teach students to think critically about how to gather pertinent information from multiple resources and formats had gained new impetus. Approaching this task systematically, the Library faculty created an information literacy curriculum that gained wide recognition. In Student Learning in the Information Age, Patricia Breivik described the curriculum as “one of the best sets of outcome statements in use today.” Purdue’s focus on undergraduate students, articulated by William Hepburn as early as 1924 and further confirmed in construction of the Undergraduate Library in 1983, remains a hallmark of services and collections at Purdue.

—J . Mark Tucker
Professor of Library Science
Purdue University

This article was written in honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Purdue University Libraries. To commemorate the event, renowned author Toni Morrison presented a lecture in the Elliott Hall of Music at Purdue on September 28, 2000. The lecture was an enormous success.

Chronology of Purdue University Libraries Deans and Directors

Jesse H. Blair (1876-1878)

Eulora J. Miller (1878-1880)